010: Thoughts about Facebook, Some Politics, College Improvements for the LGBT community, and Gay Organ Donor’s Tissue Rejected

Than you for joining us for the tenth episode of Ok 2 Be LGBT. Whether you’re new or a long-time listener, we’re glad to have you with us! For those of you who haven’t listened to us before, we are a show that educates the LGBT community and our allies.

In this episode we talk about a few topics: Facebook’s donation to anti-LGBT politician, the top 50 LGBT-friendly schools and the tissue rejection by a gay teenage donor.

In The Advocate there were three articles we share with you in this episode, the first being Facebook’s choice to donate $10,000 to an anti-LGBT politician. They defended their decision by saying they choose based on the candidate’s entire campaign, not by looking at one particular issue. You can read the full article by checking the resources section.

The second article is a listing of the top 50 LGBT-friendly colleges and universities in the US. Again the full list is in the Resources section, we also do a quick run down of the list on the show.

And lastly, The Advocate covered the case of a teenage boy from Iowa who committed suicide. He had chosen to be an organ donor on his driver’s license, but his tissue (including his eyes) were rejected because he was a gay male. This ban on gay men’s blood and other tissue began back in the 80s when HIV was first coming to light. Even though all blood and tissue is tested for disease (including HIV), this ban still exists. All the details are in the article, which is linked in the Resources below.

Now we want to hear from you – what do you think of Facebook’s decision to support an anti-LGBT politician? And what about the ban on blood and tissue donations from gay men: have you been turned away from donating blood? What can we do about it?

Write to us about in the comments, drop us an email or come over to our Facebook group. We also want to hear from you: what can we do to help you? Let us know via email or through social media.